Anne Wojcicki Is Tired of the Two-Guys-in-a-Garage Founder Myth

Anne Wojcicki barely blinked before she responded to a question about whether the mythology of Silicon Valley founders—so often involving guys in a dorm room toiling away, in the absence of any female presence—deters women from taking the risk of starting their own companies.

“I’d love to hear other stories than two guys in a garage,” she told a group of women gathered in the pub room of a private home in Pacific Heights in San Francisco on Tuesday evening. “You lead by example. Having more female role models telling their stories is important.”

Surrounded by fellow female founders and entrepreneurs, Wojcicki told the group the story of how she decided to start her own company, the personal genomics company 23andMe, in 2006. The women listening to her were there as part of the third Circle dinner in a series of events hosted by Vanity Fair in partnership with Dell and Deloitte. Previously held in New York and Chicago over the past few weeks, the dinners brought female business leaders together to discuss what impacts women’s access to capital, mentorship, and technology. The discussions will culminate in an open letter to the next president and Congress offering input on what policies they can put in place to help encourage and empower female entrepreneurs.

Wojcicki explained that after investing in health-care companies for nearly a decade, she got fed up realizing that the industry didn’t always have her best interest at heart. “The mission is that customers need to have a voice in healthcare,” she said. After mulling the idea over, she realized that people needed to control and understand decisions about their own bodies. “The only way you’re going to make a difference in healthcare is to build something outside of it.”

So she did. She was able to raise several million dollars relatively quickly, a feat she attributed to the fact that she was so passionate about the idea and that the message resonated with people. “I feel like we’re on the right side of history,” she said. “In this country, you can go buy a machine gun but there’s some health information you’re not empowered to get. . . . I want to show the world that people want to take control of their health.”

Wojcicki’s ability to raise capital and her boundless confidence (“I’ve always had this belief that I’m employable,” she said) is rare; only 7 percent of V.C. funding goes to women and many women she’s encountered are perfectionists afraid to fail once or twice or even three times—a necessary part of the risk-taking process. “It’s our job to mentor,” she said. “Other women need to encourage them that not everything is going to work out but that’s part of the beauty.”